never been much of
a hand fur marryin' round."

He forced an ingratiating smile. The smile fell as seed on barren
soil--fell and died there.

"Mother and father? Either one or both of them living?"

Never had Jeff looked more the orphan than as he stood there confessing
himself one. He fumbled his hat in his hands.

"No dependents at all then, I take it?"

"Yas, suh, dey shorely is," answered Jeff smartly, hope rekindling
within him.

"Well, who is it that you help support--if it's anybody?"

"Hit's Jedge Priest--tha's who. Jedge, he jes' natchelly couldn't git
'long noways 'thout me lookin' after him, suh. The older he git the more
it seem lak he leans heavy on me."

"Well, Judge Priest may have to lean on himself for a while. Uncle Sam
needs every able-bodied man he can get these times and you look to be as
strong as a mule. Here, take this card and go on through that door
yonder to the second room down the hall and let Doctor Dismukes look you
over."

Jeff cheered up slightly. He knew Doctor Dismukes--knew him mighty well.
In Doctor Dismukes' hands he would be in the hands of a friend. Beyond
question the doctor would understand the situation as this strange and
most unsympathetic white man undoubtedly did not.

But Doctor Dismukes, all snap and smartness, went over him as though he
had never seen him before in all his life. If Jeff had been a horse for
sale and the doctor a professional horse coper, scarcely could the
examination have been carried forward with a more businesslike dispatch.

"Jeff," said the doctor when he had finished and the other was
rearranging his wardrobe, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself for being
so healthy. Take your teeth now--your teeth are splendid. I only wish I
had a set like 'em."

"Is dey?" said Jeff despondently, for the first time in his life
regretting his unblemished ivory.

"They certainly are. You wouldn't need a gun, not with those teeth you
wouldn't--you could just naturally bite a German in two."

Jeff shivered. The very suggestion was abhorrent to his nature.

"Please suh, don't--don't talk lak that," he entreated. "I ain't
cravin' to bite nobody a-tall, 'specially 'tis Germans. Live an' let
live--tha's my sayin'."

"Yep," went on the doctor, prolonging the agony for the victim, "your
teeth are perfect and your lungs are sound, your heart action is
splendid and I know something about your appetite myself, having seen
you eat. Black boy, listen to me!